Brynnan
August 13th, 2016, 05:25
Greetings and Salutations, Adventurers.
Let me introduce myself. I am Brynnan the High, an ancient High Elf Wizard some 700 years old: Master of High Magics and a PortalMaster of the Planes. In the Mundane Plane, I am known as Bryan Britt and I am your newly-appointed Local Coordinator for Fantasy Grounds for the Adventurers League, Online Region. I am here to answer any questions I can about D&D Adventurers League and playing AL Legal games on Fantasy Grounds. Feel free to post or message any questions you have.
So as my first official duty, let me announce the release (https://dndadventurersleague.org/storm-kings-thunder-pg-and-dmg/) of the Season 5 AL Player's Guide (v5.1) (https://www.dmsguild.com/product/190680&affiliate_id=925821) and DM's Guide (v2.1) (https://www.dmsguild.com/product/190680&affiliate_id=925821). This guide supersedes all previous guides and takes effect August 26th. (No seriously, toss the old ones.)
Summary of the Changes and what they mean to our FG Games
To enable an easier adoption of the D&D Adventurers League we’re drastically shortening the ALPG, the current document is 8 pages. The ALDMG is also trimmed and comes out at 9 pages. Some info has moved to the ALDMG from the PG. Some of the other needed info (like Faction Downtime will be separate documents or online)
Some of the rules have been simplified and some have been removed from the documents like the Faction Downtime information and will be elsewhere readily available. We are working on some additional Faction and non-Faction Downtime activities to be announced later.
We’re eliminating the concept of Story Origins since that concept never really saw fruition. However, we’re still keeping the PHB+1 book concept.
Which is pretty much the all the Story Origin was anyway. Right now you can choose to use the PHB+Elemental Evil (EE) or PHB+Sword Coast Adventurers Guide (SCAG), but not combine the two. If you are a SCAG character you cannot take EE spells. It is presumed that when Volo's Guide to Monsters comes out that it will become an acceptable origin source, but it will have to be approved after it comes out.
Trading of magic items will no longer be tied to certs, anyone can trade their items with a log entry. Same rarity still required.
This is a big one for Fantasy Grounds and Online and Home Play. When you play online and win a permanent magical item, that item may be traded rarity for rarity for another item without needing a certificate. Normally certs were only available at stores and cons, but we have removed the requirement to have a cert to trade. There is also no longer a limit on the number of times an item could be traded. Again, certs are no longer required or needed for trading or any other purpose. This change is retroactive. If you have a rare magic item from Season 1, you may trade it to another character or player for his rare item from Season 3. (They must have the same rarity.) To do this, just put the trade in a log entry of both characters.
Restrictions on monster sources for class features and spells has been removed. i.e., any normally eligible monster from the Monster Manual can be used for animal companions, spells, and other class features.
Polymorph Dinosaurs, baby. Previously, the way the limitations were written, the Monster Manual was not AL Legal for player use (It was DM only.), so the dinosaurs listed in the MM was off-limits in organized play for Polymorph and druid spells and such that otherwise could use any Beast. Now, you can can go on and turn that bard into a T-Rex.
DMs can now add "thematically appropriate" monsters to encounters in order to adjust the difficulty. We expect this to primarily be used in the hardcover adventures.
If your players are having too easy of a time with encounters in an official adventure, you can now add similarly-themed monsters to the mix. You can add some swarms of bats to a vampire fight, not orcs, for example. Increase XP rewards accordingly if you can, but this does not change or lift the Maximum XP limits in modules. You are still restricted to that. But this will allow you to make the game a little more fun rather than just adding 2 more equally-flammable treants.
Those are the big changes coming for Season 5 starting on August 26th. Hope you enjoyed them as much as I was excited to hear about them.
Also, if you haven't heard yet, FG modules are being added to the previous season's adventure modules on DMsGuild (https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?test_epoch=0&filters=0_0_0_0_0_0_45545_0&affiliate_id=925821), and all Season 5 modules will come with them. So you will be able to easily play them online without having to build the module yourself.
Comment. Let me know any questions you have, and most of all, HAVE FUN!
Let me introduce myself. I am Brynnan the High, an ancient High Elf Wizard some 700 years old: Master of High Magics and a PortalMaster of the Planes. In the Mundane Plane, I am known as Bryan Britt and I am your newly-appointed Local Coordinator for Fantasy Grounds for the Adventurers League, Online Region. I am here to answer any questions I can about D&D Adventurers League and playing AL Legal games on Fantasy Grounds. Feel free to post or message any questions you have.
So as my first official duty, let me announce the release (https://dndadventurersleague.org/storm-kings-thunder-pg-and-dmg/) of the Season 5 AL Player's Guide (v5.1) (https://www.dmsguild.com/product/190680&affiliate_id=925821) and DM's Guide (v2.1) (https://www.dmsguild.com/product/190680&affiliate_id=925821). This guide supersedes all previous guides and takes effect August 26th. (No seriously, toss the old ones.)
Summary of the Changes and what they mean to our FG Games
To enable an easier adoption of the D&D Adventurers League we’re drastically shortening the ALPG, the current document is 8 pages. The ALDMG is also trimmed and comes out at 9 pages. Some info has moved to the ALDMG from the PG. Some of the other needed info (like Faction Downtime will be separate documents or online)
Some of the rules have been simplified and some have been removed from the documents like the Faction Downtime information and will be elsewhere readily available. We are working on some additional Faction and non-Faction Downtime activities to be announced later.
We’re eliminating the concept of Story Origins since that concept never really saw fruition. However, we’re still keeping the PHB+1 book concept.
Which is pretty much the all the Story Origin was anyway. Right now you can choose to use the PHB+Elemental Evil (EE) or PHB+Sword Coast Adventurers Guide (SCAG), but not combine the two. If you are a SCAG character you cannot take EE spells. It is presumed that when Volo's Guide to Monsters comes out that it will become an acceptable origin source, but it will have to be approved after it comes out.
Trading of magic items will no longer be tied to certs, anyone can trade their items with a log entry. Same rarity still required.
This is a big one for Fantasy Grounds and Online and Home Play. When you play online and win a permanent magical item, that item may be traded rarity for rarity for another item without needing a certificate. Normally certs were only available at stores and cons, but we have removed the requirement to have a cert to trade. There is also no longer a limit on the number of times an item could be traded. Again, certs are no longer required or needed for trading or any other purpose. This change is retroactive. If you have a rare magic item from Season 1, you may trade it to another character or player for his rare item from Season 3. (They must have the same rarity.) To do this, just put the trade in a log entry of both characters.
Restrictions on monster sources for class features and spells has been removed. i.e., any normally eligible monster from the Monster Manual can be used for animal companions, spells, and other class features.
Polymorph Dinosaurs, baby. Previously, the way the limitations were written, the Monster Manual was not AL Legal for player use (It was DM only.), so the dinosaurs listed in the MM was off-limits in organized play for Polymorph and druid spells and such that otherwise could use any Beast. Now, you can can go on and turn that bard into a T-Rex.
DMs can now add "thematically appropriate" monsters to encounters in order to adjust the difficulty. We expect this to primarily be used in the hardcover adventures.
If your players are having too easy of a time with encounters in an official adventure, you can now add similarly-themed monsters to the mix. You can add some swarms of bats to a vampire fight, not orcs, for example. Increase XP rewards accordingly if you can, but this does not change or lift the Maximum XP limits in modules. You are still restricted to that. But this will allow you to make the game a little more fun rather than just adding 2 more equally-flammable treants.
Those are the big changes coming for Season 5 starting on August 26th. Hope you enjoyed them as much as I was excited to hear about them.
Also, if you haven't heard yet, FG modules are being added to the previous season's adventure modules on DMsGuild (https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?test_epoch=0&filters=0_0_0_0_0_0_45545_0&affiliate_id=925821), and all Season 5 modules will come with them. So you will be able to easily play them online without having to build the module yourself.
Comment. Let me know any questions you have, and most of all, HAVE FUN!